 Good morning, good to be here this morning and we're just really excited about this initiative and I want to thank my commissioner, my chief technology officer, Matt, who really had this vision. He was very clear with it and wanted to make sure that we were able to make it happen and having councilmen, councilwoman Juan here is crucial because this is not a local initiative but it's a citywide initiative and connectivity is important and so today is a great day for NYCHA. I keep saying over and over again if you do an analysis of our administration in last nine months you'll see how often we have been on NYCHA grounds and we have been pushing forward those things that are important for NYCHA, the land trusts and so many other issues. This is where we are going to spend a great deal of attention. 21st century city like New York deserves a 21st century infrastructure and the reality is that that infrastructure has often past NYCHA residents. Internet isn't a luxury, it's a necessity just like electricity and gas we saw during COVID absence of internet service our young people were not able to do their remote learning, we saw our elders were unable to do telemedicine, we saw just basic updates were not available and it was just simply wrong. Just as we need those other utilities we need internet services and we are focused on that and for far too long NYCHA residents have been disconnected while the rest of the city has been connected. We thank you and you're 100% right you know that you know what I'm gonna start wearing my durag again. And so the goal here is today we want to bridge the digital divide with the landmark rollout of the Big Apple Connect program. We're making free high speed internet and basic cable TV available to 300,000 New Yorkers and more than 200 public housing developments by the end of 2023. Currently available in eight pilot sites across the five boroughs including here in this NYCHA housing that we're located in now Big Apple Connect is being expanded today to more than 100 NYCHA developments a clear pathway to connectivity. This is the largest municipal sponsored broadband program for public housing residents the largest. We're delivering broadband across the five boroughs and getting more New Yorkers online than ever before and here at Langston huge houses the architect of the poem life for me has not been a crystal stairs. Right here we are offering connectivity to 502 households. This will help residents get greater access to health care, education and employment opportunities online. It will help them stay connected and allow them to be connected to their loved ones as they live in a safe clean environment. Our goal is to expand and to grow the connectivity throughout the city. It will allow the digital literacy skills that we keep talking about for far too long and they have been overlooked. Something as simple as providing free accessible Wi-Fi can change the life of a New Yorker and Big Apple Connect is connecting New York City to the future. This is such an important program is something that we knew was crucial. We wanted to get done right away as we continue to expand information throughout the city. We knew we had to expand the connectivity so people can receive that information. It's a good day for NYCHA. It's a good day for our city as we continue to connect every day residents. I want to turn it over to our chief technology officer, Matt, take it from here. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the support and not just to the mayor but to Council Member Wong, to the chief housing officer, Jess Katz and of course none of this is possible without the community. So our tenant association president for Hughes Houses, Mr. Ciprian and also for Inspector Gill and the folks at the NYPD for providing that bridge between the community and the department. So what we're talking about here today is not just about free Wi-Fi. It's about economic development. It's about public health. It's about safety. And it's about having a fear shot like every other person that has money does. And in public housing, far too long, it's been second fiddle to others just because it didn't have access to the resources. So like the mayor said when he got in and while he ran for office, this administration is about getting stuff done. So we're not here to talk about things that we will get done eventually. We're talking about things that we're actually getting done now. So as the mayor stated, we're in over eight developments and not just any eight developments. One of the developments that we started with Big Apple Connect was Queensborough's Houses, the largest development across the nation. And today we're announcing the rollout to over 100 housing developments. And by the end of 2023, we expect to be in all housing developments. So what does this actually mean? If you look administration to administration and you look over the past several, there's been lots of commitments to public housing in terms of what would come, what connectivity would look like. And all of those were focused on multi-year strategies. Coming off the heels of COVID, seeing what impact it had to the community, and not just any community, what it had to this community, those that live in public housing, it was unfair. You had kids that went home with devices into pre-war buildings, and the moment they stepped in the door, those devices didn't work. We gave them access to hotspots, and again, the only way they could use those things is if they got by a window, so that stuff could work. And as we look forward, and we know that we're pushing, we're pushing past and now remote schools a reality, we want to make sure that those that have access to the lease historically has a fair shot to participate in all the things that everyone else does, like education. So by the end of 2023, over 300,000 people will have access, not just to free broadband, but also social and media connections through basic TV. And this is by far the largest municipal broadband program that's ever been launched, and it's not just one that's been launched, it's one that's focused on delivering results quick. So when we talk about getting stuff done, look back a year from now, and as the mirror is committed, you'll see that this administration is like no other. So already today, we're empowering over, we're empowering thousands of households across nitrogen, our eight developments, and we expect by the end of the year to be in over 100 and by the end of the next calendar year to cover the rest, and it's just the beginning. Digital equity is not just about connectivity, it's also about device access. The only other program that rivals what we're doing with Big Apple Connect is what exists on the federal level with the federal ACP, and we're going to continue to push the boundaries to ensure that those that historically has had access to the lease in the city will get there for your opportunity. But it's not just about hearing about how we feel about it or what government's doing, because a lot of administrations talk, and it's easy to say that we're doing great things. Let's hear from the people that are consuming the services, and I'd like to introduce the Tenant Association President, Mr. Siparin. President, good morning to each and everyone. Thank you so much. Listen, wow, this is a historical moment here at Langston Hughes Development. I first want to thank the mayor. Man, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you even taking time to work along with the chief, Mr. Matt Foster. Thank you so much. Working along with us to bring this program, the Big Apple Program, is something really excited for the folks at Langston Hughes. I'm telling you, this is not a game, this is a real program. One of the things that I shared, this program allowed me to connect with my daughter and my sons. I have two kids in college. I'm a single dad, raising four kids, and I have, in Texas, and I have one income coming in in my household. So, getting a program like this is free, and for those who think it's not real, this is a bill. Mark zero, zero, zero. So, it's real. So, just for the folks, and for the folks that who didn't connect yet, you need to come outside and hook up and get signed up right away. This program is so real, it is so good. I am telling you, I was talking to my daughter last night because of the free internet. She's all the way in Dallas, Texas. I'm in here in New York, and we were having a good conversation. My daughter's telling me she's making the honor roll. If I had no internet, how would I connect with her? So, this big Apple program is real. And Mr. Mayor, we cannot thank you enough. Listen, I know you've been bouncing around, doing a lot, and trying to make sure the New York Sea housing, being taken care of, we appreciate you so much. Thank you so much. And Inspector Gill, we thank you so much for the love. I'm telling you, you cannot get more real than this. This is the amount of love I'm feeling here. I am so excited that you start and lengthen here first. I know it's going to spread out, but as I said, it's a historical moment for lengthening here. We are proud, we are happy, and we are thanking you so much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Foster, and thank you, Deputy Director. Thank you so much. Powerful story. Four children, and, you know, how many in college? Two in college. Two in college. That says a lot. And down in Texas, I'm going to share with you later what I want your daughter to say to Abbott once we finish down the governor. But we want to we want to really bring on a partner out in Queens, one city, maybe five boroughs, but we have one destiny and one concern. And Councilwoman Juan knows how important this issue is. And Councilwoman, please come and say a few words. Good morning. Thank you so much, Mayor Adams, CTO Frazier, as well as our partners in NYCHA and all of our city partners that are here today. It is no accident that we stand here before you right after the onset of the peak of COVID, where we would physically see children while we were doing food distribution staying next to a link NYC or sitting at a bus stop so that they can go to school. And we now have a mayor and a CTO who said that is not acceptable. Every child, no matter what your income level, no matter what where you live, deserve to have connectivity so that they have equal opportunity and access to the digital market, to the digital research place so that they can also attend and remote school as well as hybrid learning that our seniors can apply for their benefits online, that the seniors can get their COVID-19 appointments or monkey pox appointments. If all of our city resources and benefits were offered online, that it is no brainer that our mayor as well as our CTO and our city has said it is upmost priority to make sure that our folks are connected, especially the most vulnerable in our NYCHAs. As your Councilmember in Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside and Storia, I have three NYCHAs and both Woodside houses and Queensbridge houses will be part of the launch for the pilot for the Big Apple Connect. And this is how you change lives. When you see a direct investment from our city for the most vulnerable to make sure that they are getting everything that they need, this is how you truly show leadership and I cannot be more grateful for our city mayor as well as our CTO to make sure that this happens. This entire summer we made sure to attend every single Friends and Family Day at all of our NYCHAs and Queens to make sure that people were aware of both the federal affordability connectivity program as well as the Big Apple Connect because they are complementary to each other. Now not only will people have access to home internet as well as cable so that they can watch the news and be able to stay connected, they can now use the federal affordable connectivity program to have the subsidy for their cellular device as well. That is the holistic affordable connectivity that we need for our city and that is how we are keeping the Big Apple Connected. So I thank you for being here. I am excited for what the future holds for our city as we continue to make sure that our most vulnerable New Yorkers because we know for a fact that black and brown New Yorkers are twice as likely than our white counterparts to have internet at home that that is no longer an issue in this city with this leadership. Thank you so much. Thank you. Whenever we talk about our housing I just want the Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz to come up and say if you work so hard on these issues. Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you to everyone for coming here today. As the Mayor said and CTO Frazier said NYCHA is the centerpiece that is the single largest and greatest affordable housing resource that we have here in New York City and for decades we've been letting it crumble. So bit by bit we've been working very hard to get stuff done for NYCHA and try to rebuild the trust with the NYCHA residents and rebuild physically the buildings themselves as well as the connectivity between NYCHA residents and the rest of New York City because NYCHA is such a special resource here in New York and we have such a huge number of New Yorkers who live in NYCHA housing and we've really been allowing NYCHA residents to get left behind in so many different ways. So today is a really important step forward towards that. The public housing trust is a really important step forward and so brick by brick zero dollar internet bill by zero dollar internet bill we'll be moving that forward and I also really just want to thank the new interim CEO of NYCHA Lisa Bovahayet who's here today for leading us into the next phase of NYCHA. Thank you. Okay and all of our partners, the partners, the cable providers are really coming to the table with a mindset of how do we work together and get this done. We want to thank them as well. So when we open to a few on-topic and then we'll do some off-topics. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to ask if you have any ballpark dollar figures about how much this project is going to cost and then secondly which providers are actually involved? Is it just optimum or are there other providers as well? Thank you for the question. So in terms of provider participation, currently we have participation from Charter Communications and Altace and I'd like to thank them both for coming to the table and helping us make this a reality. We're currently in conversations with Verizon to get them in but currently it's locked to Charter Communications and Altace. In terms of the costs, the cost per unit is $30 per month right and the overall total cost will be dependent on the deployment footprint. And just as a follow-up on that, the previous administration when it was working on internet expansion had kind of a philosophy of relying more on MWE smaller providers and trying to involve them in the process. This seems to be a little bit of a step away from that, relying more on bigger providers. Can you touch a little bit on what prompted that decision, how you waited? Sure thing. So in government oftentimes we try to find the best perfect most ideal solution and then along the lines you figure you forget that there are people that are actually hurting. So when you look at the previous approaches that focused on multi-year delivery right talking about getting something tangible into someone's hands in two years, four years, five years, what's the cost of an action? How many people do we actually get left behind? So this administration when we talk about getting stuff done, it's not getting stuff done, that's the perfect thing, it's getting stuff done so that we can help the people that need the help right now. So it's like dealing with a trauma patient. You have to stop the bleeding and this stops the bleeding and while we work on something that could be more sustainable long-term, we have to cover the problems that we have today. And just the MWE part, which is very important, we're going to focus on how do we bring those companies, those smaller companies, part of this process as we expand out. This is not the end of the expansion of high speed broadband. We are focused, laser focused on improving the access to small and minority women-owned businesses as we expand. But as Matt indicated, it was crucial to get these families of the high speed broadband and this was the fastest way to do that. Okay, we're going to excuse y'all from the off-topic onslaught. You don't want to be a part of this, man. All right. Thank you so much. Hold on, let me see. Mayor, how are you? First question, information about that city. Can you tell us about that possible plan? What's going on there? It's really unfortunate, you know, this just really highlights how this issue is real. We can't go into details by law on the mother who lost her life. It's really troubling. And our goal is to just tell those who are going through this traumatic experience that if you need mental health assistance, we are providing that, and we're going to continue to do so. You saw at the intake center that we had, that we had a litany of services, we're going to continue to. It's really sad to hear that someone, you know, took their life in this capacity, but, you know, by law, we're not allowed to go into the details of it. We're not going to leave any stone unturned. 11,600 of asylum seekers and migrants are here in the city. 8,500 are in our system. We open up 23 emergency shelters. We're not going to leave any stone unturned. And once we, once we finalize our plans, we're going to announce it. We're not, there's not going to be any surprises once we finalize how we're going to continue to live up to our legal and moral obligation, we're going to announce it. So until then, we're just letting people know what we're thinking of and how we're going to find creative ways to solve this man-made humanitarian crisis that was created. Mr. Mayor, yesterday you said that you were considering legal action against the government of Texas. Is that directed at also considering suing him potentially? And why is it- Questions. Number one, we're saying we're looking at all our legal options. We're not, I didn't pinpoint any particular place. We're looking at all our legal options around this entire event. As our council said last week, we're looking at the right to shelter aspects of it. We are strongly in support of rights to shelter, but there's aspects of it that we want to look at. And so we're looking at our legal options on all of what we are seeing, how to address this. And once we identify what legal actions we're going to take, we're going to announce that. Now working with the mayor of El Paso, and I want to be clear, I thought I said it yesterday and I'll say it again. We are not telling anyone that New York can accommodate every migrant in the city. We're not encouraging people to send eight, nine buses a day. That is not what we're doing. We're saying that as a sanctuary and a city with right to shelter, we're going to fulfill our obligation. That's what we're doing. And when we reached out to Governor Abbott and stated, can we coordinate? Can we identify who's traveling here that we don't have to guess this? They refuse to do so. When we reached out to the mayor of El Paso, he was willing to sit down and share what his concerns are and what our concerns are and figure out a humane way to coordinate. And we're clear. We cannot handle all of your migrants of mayor of El Paso. But we were able to communicate with them. We were not able to do that with Governor Abbott's team. We spoke with them. They stated they were going to inform us and he did not. That's because there's a political element there too because Abbott's a Republican. Perhaps you work better with Democrats like Lesser and El Paso. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to ask about the budget cuts that were recently announced, the new peg for the agencies. Just wondering if you could explain why that is necessary now, what is the impetus for it. I know you've referred to the stock market being unstable, but that's been the case for a while. So what's specifically right now? That's an interesting question. Every expert said that we are getting ready to enter a financial typhoon. Every expert, not just my budget director, Jock, everyone, we have a potential $10 billion budget deficit in the out years. Just think about that, $10 billion. And so if I don't make the smart decisions now, am I going to wait until we're at the cliff or do I prevent the cliff? And I stated this is not a surprise. When I ran for office, I stated that we were going to do a peg to balance the budget. We did that. And I stated I was going to use text that pays dollars more efficiently. I have been very clear on this over and over again. So this is not a surprise. We have to be financially sound for the future. And I'm going to do that without layoffs and without reduction in services. We're going to find efficient ways to operate this city. And I said that over and over again. The next NICHA CEO, is that going to be like a national search or are you going to look internally in the agency? Like can you give us an idea of what that process will look like? Yes, so to the national search, we're going to find the best person to provide leadership to some of the best people I know. And that's my NICHA residents. And so they need to have that quality of leadership. And we're going to do a national search to find that person to do so. We're going to coordinate with the governor. And we're going to coordinate. I met the mayor of San Juan a few months ago. I have been called out to him. And we want to be clear on how we could help, you know, because people on the ground can tell you better of what they need instead of us just dictating what they need. But we are hard to go out to the families and residents of Puerto Rico. And we want to be there for our brothers and sisters as much as possible. How are you? Never knew about seeing me on a train the other day late at night. It just always amazes me that whenever tragedy happened, we start with the failure of the hardworking people who have housed over 11,000 people. No, this wasn't a failure. No. No, a woman was, I believe, was traumatized by this whole experience. And this is not a failure of those men and women, those city employees who have stayed up late at night, been at the bus station, feeding, navigating. No, it's not a failure. City employees are not failures. They're hardworking civil servants. And we should start the questioning off with, is this a failure? Is this a failure? No. No. The trauma. The failure was the governors that sent people on a multi-day bus ride without proper food, without medical care, without the basic necessities, telling them they had to be treated in a humane way. That's the failure. And we didn't fail in this city. This city is helping people. And, again, my heart goes out to that family. And we're going to continue to provide mental health care for those who are in need. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to go back to the idea of cruise ships. The Times reported that your chief of staff spent time on a cruise ship in France for research purposes. I wanted to see how he was trying to figure out there, unless that taxpayer funded. Do you see what I go through? I answered the cruise ship question already. I'm not going back and forth on that. When there's something to announce more about a cruise ship idea or any other idea, I'm going to announce it. I'm finished with that. Next question. Okay. We saw some new figures and so police stops are greatly increasing. I know you've said that there is a role for that in your policing strategy, but the numbers show that, again, people of color being disproportionately stopped and relatively few guns are being taken off the street as a result of these stops. Why is this still an effective police strategy in your mind? During the campaign, people asked me about the proper use of doing inquiries if someone is believed to commit a crime, the proper use of doing it. Because remember, the improper use, remember, I was the leading voice fighting against the abuse of improper police stops. Testifying the federal court, the judge mentioned me and her ruling on why she ruled against the police department. So I'm clear on that. So when you have tools, you use the tools properly. We have a record number of gun arrests in the city. Let's be clear. When I walk in this housing area, the people here are stating, Eric, we want to be safe. And I'm saying we could have safety without abuse. That's what we're doing. The NYCHA tenant president acknowledged the work of the inspector. I don't think people are listening to everyday New Yorkers that are saying we're building a relationship between police and community. Now, some people in the city only want to focus on protecting the rights of people who commit crimes. I want to protect the rights of people who are the victims of crime. We are not abusing any tool in policing as long as I'm the mayor of the city of New York. People of color are being disproportionately shot and killed and injured disproportionately. I don't know if you're reading the papers on who's been shot, who's been killed, what babies are being shot. Disproportionately, black and brown. That's what we need to look at. If it's not a failure by the city, you brought up the governor of Texas, the governor of Florida. Do you hold them accountable for this stuff? Do you think it's the governor of Texas' fault that this woman is now dead? No, I think the governor of Texas and others are at fault for creating this man-made humanitarian crisis. That's what I think they are at fault for.